A Cloudsdalian Hengstwolf in Ponyville

The grass was plenty nice to rest in, if Applejack said so herself. Debatably though, Applejack herself made for a comfier cushion; Dash had made herself cozy by laying her head on the other mare’s belly.

They had so much to say; anecdotes of all kinds to tell, events to relive with laughs, confessions to make. So far they’d done a bit of each three. One of their conversations had eventually led to Rainbow asking about the cowmare’s progenitors.

Applejack gazed at the star-studded blue sky.

“They’ve been very far away for a good while now.’’

Dash understood.

“But… well, ‘far away’ ain’t the same as ‘gone’, right?’’

“Heh, when did you become so philosophical?’’

“Ya reckon that’s deep? Oh sweetheart, just you wait till ya see me when ah’m full-blown sloshed off of cider.’’ The pegasus let out a cute giggle, but that wasn’t really a joke.

“...I’m lucky to still have my mom and pops, I guess.’’

Her smile faltered.

“Um… I probably should’ve gone and visited them more often.’’

“Rainbow, they kno’ ya love ‘em. I’m sure they couldn’t have ever asked for a better daughter.’’

She fought off the tears building up in her eyes.

"Scoots is gonna miss me badly.’’

“I wi—’’

…

“We all will.’’

It was too late to earnestly think about foolish fantasies of growing old with her marefriend, but perhaps she was focusing too much on the hard cold truth of the future and not enough on the tender relief of the present.

“Tell ya what, though,” She held Dash's hoof. “We can start to go off an’ do whatever ya gotta do by tomorrow mornin’.”

“...Y-Yeah. Yeah, sounds good.”

A drop of sweat hit Applejack’s hoof. She turned her view down to Dash, whose eyes were tightly closed and coat was practically drenched.

“Rainbow?!”

Applejack rocked Rainbow as the pegasus groaned in clear discomfort and pain, her whole frame burning to the touch.

“D-Dashie! C'mon, say sumthin' t-’’

She heard a gruesome popping noise that made her cut off her speech. “Horse apples.” Applejack took one step back, ears pinned to her head.

Rainbow’s bones and muscles violently and painfully shifted under her skin and coat, bones cracked into unnatural shapes, body hair fell away, and her coat rippled as her new fur darkened. She growled in pain as her front legs’ hooves split in three clawed toes and her hind ones joined their fate, the bloody sprouting of her dew claws adding to the gut-churning display.

A long, fleshy snout with sharp teeth burst from Dash's mouth and her eyes turned golden with slitted pupils. Applejack was shaking in place, in the end she wasn’t ever truly prepared for a first-seat demonstration of her friend’s curse in action. “D-Dash, calm down. Yer still Dash! Y’hear me?" The wolf growled loudly and started advancing on AJ.

The mare swallowed loudly, but stood her ground. “Ain't runnin'! Yer still Dash, and ah'm still AJ, so ya bet ah ain't gonna leave ya!''

Rainbow lunged towards the earth pony, going for a tackle, but the mare held on, trying not to let the sudden hurtful impact deter her trust. She wrapped her forelegs around the wolf and pulled her close.

“It's ok. It's okay.’’

Rainbow tried to struggle, tried to growl, but the softness was too soothing. Her fighting spirit ebbed with each thrash. She let go of AJ with a shudder, huffing softly. She leaned in closer to the mare, nuzzling her gently. “That's it, just like that,’’ Applejack muttered.

Dash whimpered softly against AJ, but it wasn't because she was sad. She felt safe, warm, and loved. She didn't want to let this go.

Applejack was admittedly still wary of the beast that used to be Rainbow Dash, but she didn’t want her to go, not yet, so she hugged the wolf that was also her dear friend close. “We'll get through this.’’

A soft squeak drew both their attention to Fluttershy trying to regain her hidden position from broad foliage.

“What are ya doin' here?!’’ Applejack, getting up, hissed at the other pony, but Fluttershy shied away from her gaze.

“I... I…’’ She stuttered, unsure of any excuses to bring up.

Twilight stepped out. “Alright, the subtle approach has failed.’’ Floating up in her magic, a satchel with herbs that she gave to the pony beside her. “Fluttershy, administer, now!’’

Starlight was at her side, horn glowing with irregular potent magic. “We'll keep her busy!’’

The timid pony rushed over just to get tackled by Applejack. “Leave ‘er be! Ah just got through to ‘er!’’

Twilight scowled at Applejack. “She's a monster now, Applejack. We have to take action or countless other ponies could be hurt, and others inflicted with this curse! I know it's hard, I understand, but this isn't Dash anymore.’’

Rainbow Dash growled and let out a whine. She couldn't focus, her brain was so scattered, and the current predicament didn’t help with that. Her heart pounded violently from knowing these equines meant danger. She lunged for Twilight.

They stopped, held in the bubble of force that led back to Starlight. With an extremely forceful slash of her claws, she popped the sphere and shook herself out, recovering swiftly to change her target; the wolf violently pounced on Starlight, leaving marks on the dirt as she gripped her alarmed prey’s forelegs down tightly.

“No, Dash, down!’’ shouted AJ, pounding the magic field she was still enclosed in. Rainbow snarled as the earth pony tugged on what was left of her rationality.

Fluttershy scrambled over to snatch the dropped bag. “Now,’’ shouted Twilight, pointing at Rainbow, eyes on Fluttershy.

The pegasus shut her eyes and looked away as she threw a hoof-ful of the milled plant at Rainbow, striking her side. Rainbow growled and then let out the loudest screech that rattled all the ponies nearby. The beast fell to the ground in a heap, kicking up a cloud of dirt and dust as it twitched.

As Starlight finally freed her from the bubble, Applejack dove towards the fallen form. “No! Celestia darn it, she's our friend!’’ She looked around, glaring at the two unicorns.

She couldn't see how Fluttershy was crying, she was too focused on being as close to Rainbow as she could be.

Starlight got back to her hooves after some considerable effort and grunting, taking her place at Twilight's side, one of her legs slightly but noticeably limping.

“Applejack… there wasn't a lot of choice in this,’’ she firmly said. It fell on deaf ears.

Rainbow whimpered softly as Applejack held her head. “D-Dashie... where did it hit ya?’’

Suddenly, in awe, she saw Dash molting her rough fur, her hooves shifting into their natural shape, her muzzle shortening and softening…

She was a pony once more. And at what cost?

Looking closer, Applejack brushed back some of Dash’s feathers to find the herbs had landed on one of her wings, lightly twitching still. Her words failed her, and she clutched to her love even tighter.

Desperately trying to hear a heartbeat, she found there was none.

Sorrow, anger, helplessness; she was deeply feeling all, and yet she felt so numb. She didn’t have the debility necessary to scream, but she had the strength to cry her heart out for the first time in several moons.

Not one of the other mares present wanted to keep pretending this was what had to happen.

“She's gone,” Applejack announced weakly.

The world Twilight came to be part of was crumbling before her senses, and all she could do was watch with blurry vision how her plan successfully concluded.

Starlight thought of giving empty platitudes of reassurance to her mentor, but there was a sobbing pegasus nearby who surely needed that more than her, she concluded.

Fluttershy shivered at the touch of the unicorn, but quickly turned around and hugged her, engulfing her weeping face on Glimmer’s shoulder. “I’m sorry,’’ she repeated over and over.

Applejack felt like a little powerless filly again. Memories of the night where she lost two of her loved ones flashed in her mind, as if taunting her, asking her ‘do you have to lose her too?’

No.

Quickly, she put one of her hooves over the other and placed them in the middle of her marefriend's chest. Putting the force of her body weight behind it, just like she’d practiced since that fateful evening, she pushed her hooves straight down hard in the middle of the pegasus's thorax. The pressings kept on, one, two, three; a dozen, a hundred times per minute, laboriously each time.

Rainbow Dash spat out blood.

Her chest was heaving.

The rest of the ponies turned their heads to look at the miraculous scene.

Applejack choked on her own incredulity, an involuntary chuckle of pure relief dying on her throat.

“A-AJ…’’ a half-conscious Dash managed to meekly whisper.

“Yeah?’’

She formed a weak smile.

“Did I scare you now?’’

The chuckle resurfaced, along with sincere giggling.

“Ya darned idiot.’’

❈❈❈

Dash looked so weak and pale on her bed, even though she had been given the best possible care.

Opening her eyes with some effort, she discerned she was in a hospital room. On one of her sides she felt the presence of her beloved Tank, whose sleepiness overtook him after staying up all night and morn waiting for his owner to wake up.

“Heavens to Betsy!’’

Applejack springed out of the chair she was standing in and galloped towards her lover, hugging her.

“H-Hey, calm down!’’ Aside from the awkward feeling of butterflies in her stomach, any kind of touch did hurt a little.

“Ah, mah bad, s’just…’’ she wiped a tear and backed away to give her some space. “Wasn’t expectin’ ya to get up this soon.’’

The pegasus looked around. “Shouldn’t the others be here too?’’

“They’re waitin’ right outside, ‘em all… we reckoned- well, ah insisted on…’’ she blushed, looked away, “being left alone with ya, to tell you sumthin’.’’

“What, that you love me and think I’m awesome? You already told me!’’

“...N-No, it ain’t that,’’ she muttered in a somber tone. “Y’see, the doctors had to do sum drastic stuff to save ya, and…’’

She couldn’t say it straight up.

“Can ya feel yer wings?’’

“I can’t really feel much of anything.’’

“Rainbow…’’ she sighed.

“Yer left wing’s gone.’’

…

“That sucks, I guess.’’

“Ah know it’s a lot to take in but just kno’ we’ll be here fer- what?’’

“What?’’

“Wh-... whaddya mean ‘what’? Why ain’t ya bawling yer soul out?! Yer ne’er gonna fly again! Ne’er gunna get into the Wonderbolts, and what ‘bout-’’

Dash leaned in for a kiss to shut her up. It worked.

“Look, I was already suffering over all that way back when Twilight told me what’d have to happen to me.’’

“But…’’

“I still feel awful for what I did to Fluttershy, and if this is my punishment for doing that… so be it. It beats dying from being poisoned by a stupid plant anyways, don’t you think?’’

Applejack’s worried frown softened; she sighed. It wasn’t Dash’s fault, she wished she knew that. “Right on.’’

“Besides,’’ the earth pony’s hoof was held by the pegasus, “now I can spend more time with you at the farm.’’ A blush crept on her face. “I-If you want.’’

Before Applejack could enthusiastically respond with a yes, a scream outside of the room was heard.

“I CAN’T TAKE IT ANYMORE, I’M GOING IN!’’

The door was slammed open by a tearful Pinkie Pie who rammed into Rainbow Dash to hug her, to the latter’s dismay. The pink pony started rambling about several things at once with a sobbing voice, but she mostly just wanted to communicate she was glad one of her best pals was alright.

“Pinkie, darling, we talked about this!’’ Rarity chimed in, entering the room to get her off of Dash, with Fluttershy and Twilight following her.

Rainbow froze when she saw the two.

“I heard what you said, and, um…’’ Fluttershy forced herself to look at her hurt friend. “I won’t deny I really, really hated that beast before I knew it was you. But, Rainbow Dash, I know better than anybody else how it’s like to turn into something you aren’t.’’

Rainbow began tearing up.

“I forgive you.’’

“And I’m sorry for… well, trying to- you know,’’ Twilight added.

“Don’t sweat it, Twi,’’ she wiped her tears quickly to not seem sentimental, “just be thankful that nerdy book of yours was wrong.’’

“Yeah,’’ Applejack continued, “ah’m not complainin’ but, how come she’s still kickin’?’’

“I suppose the ponies that were originally infected with this curse would’ve also survived the purification if they had gotten the right medical care, we’re lucky Applejack knew CPR and helped with carrying you here.’’

“Wait why did it take Applejack to get her proper care?’’ questioned Pinkie.

“I-’’

“That’s a valid doubt… you really were convinced getting her to a hospital wouldn’t have saved her?’’ Rarity asked.

“I-I didn’t-’’ Her voice lowered. “Yeah. Kind of.’’

“You know wolfsbane isn’t that-’’

“I thought it was a magical lethal herb alright?!’’

“A’right, sweetheart, maybe let somepony give ya sum gardenin’ knowledge next time yeah?’’ Applejack joked.

Rainbow snickered, starting a chain reaction. Twilight herself joined in after the silliness of her unusual ignorance dawned on her.

Just outside of the room, Starlight Glimmer was still sitting, observing, dripping sweat over something on her hoof.

A scratch.